we had some coconut milk left from yesterdays bombay curry, and with one sachet of vanilla custard powder, 20g sugar and some milk it became our dessert today. just fill up the coconut milk (we had about 250ml) with milk until you have 0.5l liquid*, and prepare the custard according to manufacturers instructions, probably with a bit less sugar. i also added a knife tip of cardamom. let it chill in the fridge and serve with pineapple.
*referring to german custard package sizes
i don’t remember where i first read about this idea – but it’s really a great one. those two flavours go together very well and make for a refreshing and light desert. plus it takes only minutes to prepare it: cut a pineapple in bite-sized pieces. chop the leafes of 4-5 twigs of peppermint and pestle with 1-2 tbsp sugar. this becomes peppermint pesto, and it’s used to marinate the pineapple in it. the marinated pineapple can be enjoyed as it is or served with plain yoghurt.
i wanted to make rolls for breakfast, but did not manage to get up in time. so we had scones, which are really quick and easy to make. i followed this recipe with minor modifications – i replaced the 140ml 1.5%milk with a mixture of 2tbsp crème fraîche and 3.5% milk and baked them at a lower temerature (200°). and since my cookie cutter is only 4 cm in diameter we got not only 6 scones, but 16 mini-scones. they were delicious, and reminded me of holidays in Ireland back in … 1998.
tonight we had guests and once again i made the incredible veggie soup, this time with carrots, potatoes, fennel, hamburg parsley and peas. tarte au citron was the desert.
to make a tarte au citron has been a plan for quite some time. i did some research on the internet and found an amazing number of possible variations, finally ending up at david lebovitz’ lemon tarte recipe. the interesting part here is the tarte dough, as it is done in a very uncommon way: first you boil the butter and some other ingredients in the oven for some time, and then add the flour – which makes for quite a bubbling and sputtering experience. (i don’t want to repeat the full recipe here, go check out the french pastry dough). i modified the filling of the tarte a bit, using 100ml lemon juice plus 50ml orange juice, 100g sugar, lemon zest, 3 eggs and 50g butter. after the custard was cooked i added also 2tbsp crème fraîche. the filling is still quite tart (i did not pay attention to this detail while reading the recipe), but with some raspberry sauce it was very nice. next i’ll give the almond version a try.
having never been to mallorca so far i also did not know about Ensaïmadas de Mallorca , which are obviously something like a national treasure. i stumbled upon the recipe here and tried them this morning (started actually last evening, since they are supposed to rise overnight). i made only half the amount of the recipe. and i used butter instead of lard – i guess that’s the reason why i found them nice, but not as spectacular as i had expected. note to self: go check out the original on-site.
i was not able to make it to the party today, but prepared something to bring along: once again the raspberry swirl cheesecakes. i used only 150g sugar (which is way enough) and only 340g cream cheese (thanks to ph.ila.delphia for shrinking their package size!). oh, and the base is not made from oreos but othellos. i didn’t bother with the swirl part, and actually you might call this version also reminds-me-of-disgusting-skin-disease-cheesecakes. nevertheless they are great, and every time i make them somebody asks for the recipe.
yes, they seem to look ok, but were actually quite horrible. it turned out that the combination between the flapjack recipe in this book and the idea to add grated pears (from here) does not work. they remained practically uncooked inside, even after maybe 12 minutes. destroying transforming them into something kaiserschmarrn-like didn’t help either. so we ended up eating leftover sandwich bread with honey.
actually it was more like a banana cake, mostly following this recipe (in german): melt 80g margarine with about 120g sugar and put in a bowl, add 180g ground almonds, 120g flour and 2 tsp baking soda. mix in 80ml lukewarm milk (or soy drink if you want to go for the vegan version), 3 mashed bananas and finally 50g chopped chocolate. bake at 160° for about 45 minutes. i found it a tiny bit to sweet but at least another batch of leftover ingredients from christmas baking is gone.
i made this cherry cake (recipe in english) and just before it was completely gone we took a picture. which means the cake lived for about 8 hours.
this is an adaption of belgian chocolate cake, of which many recipes are floating around on the net. main differences: used crème fraîche instead of kefir, left out the cocos stuff and made only 2/3 to fit in a 20cm baking pan. here we go:
first some preparations – it’s better to arrange all this stuff beforehand. put 50g cocoa in a bowl, add 100ml hot (not boiling) water. melt the cocoa, let it cool down a bit. melt 75g butter. take two eggs, seperate egg yolk and egg white. sift 200g flour together with 1.5 tsp baking soda.
now beat egg yolks with 150g sugar until creamy. add melted cocoa. add butter. add flour/baking soda. (ha – great that we prepared this in advance!) add 100g crème fraîche. beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold it into the dough.
now pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 40 minutes at 175°C.
meanwhile prepare the frosting: chop 75g of your favourite dark chocolate (70% cocoa should be minimum!). heat 50g heavy cream and 1 tsp butter (microwaving is allowed here). pour it over the chocolate and stir until everything is evenly combined. let it chill. once the cake is cool enough cover with frosting. let it chill. sift cocoa powder over the cake before enjoying it.